• NOTE: In place of a background academic article, today’s post includes opinion pieces from two Jewish Israeli sources

❶ Journalists syndicate calls for protection for Palestinian journalists
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Commission of Detainees raps IOF raid on Abu Jihad Center in Abu Dis
❷ Renewed aerial attacks target northern Gaza at dawn
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Gaza: Eight Gazans killed, 535 others wounded in 10 days
❸ US Jerusalem announcement violates international law, says Russian Envoy
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) PA to seek General Assembly if US vetoes Security Council resolution on Jerusalem
❹ OPINION: Israeli Jews ‘will never accept’ giving vote to Palestinians — liberal Zionist leader
. . . . . ❹ ― (ᴃ) Why Israel’s Arab leadership is disengaging from the Zionist Left
❺ POETRY by Fouzi El-Asmar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ JOURNALISTS  SYNDICATE  CALLS  FOR  PROTECTION  FOR  PALESTINIAN  JOURNALISTS 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Dec. 18, 2017 ― Nasser Abu Baker, President of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), demanded the international community to provide legal and formal protection for Palestinian journalists from Israel’s violations against them.
___Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah, Abu Baker said that Israeli forces dangerously target Palestinian journalists and media in order to prevent them from conveying the truth to international masses, who have shown solidarity with the Palestinians through numerous demonstrations that took places across the world in protest of US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.     MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  COMMISSION  OF  DETAINEES  RAPS  IOF  RAID  ON  ABU  JIHAD  CENTER  IN  ABU  DIS  
The Palestinian Information Center 
Dec. 18, 2017 ― The Palestinian Commission for Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs has strongly denounced the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) for raiding Abu Jihad Center for Prisoners’ Affairs at al-Quds University in Abu Dis town, east of Jerusalem.
___Director of the commission Issa Qaraqe described the violent IOF raid on the headquarters of Abu Jihad Center as a blatant and futile attempt to destroy archives of the Palestinian captive  movement.   MORE . . .
❷ RENEWED  AERIAL  ATTACKS  TARGET  NORTHERN  GAZA  AT  DAWN
The Palestinian Information Center 
Dec. 18, 2017 ―  Renewed Israeli airstrikes at dawn Monday targeted different areas of northern Gaza, without causing injuries among civilians.
___Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that Israeli warplanes bombed two resistance posts belonging to al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas with five missiles in northern Gaza.     ___Another three missiles targeted a building in al-Waha resort, also in northern Gaza, causing widespread damage in the place, the sources added.   MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  GAZA:  EIGHT  GAZANS  KILLED,  535  OTHERS  WOUNDED  IN  10  DAYS
The Palestinian Information Center 
Dec. 18, 2017 ―  Since the outbreak of the current intifada (uprising) 10 days ago, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have killed eight Palestinian citizens and wounded 535 others, mostly in shooting attacks, in different areas of the besieged Gaza Strip.
___According to the health ministry in Gaza, four Palestinians were killed in sniper attacks east of Gaza city and three others in Jabalia during the recent protests, which were organized inside Gaza border areas against the US recognition of Occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.   MORE . . .
❸  US  JERUSALEM  ANNOUNCEMENT  VIOLATES  INTERNATIONAL  LAW,  SAYS  RUSSIAN  ENVOY 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 18, 2017 ― Mikhail Bogdanov, Special Envoy of the Russian President for the Middle East and Deputy Foreign Minister, said the United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a breach of international law.     During a meeting Monday with Anwar Abed al-Hadi, director of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s political Bureau in Damascus, Syria, Bogdanov stressed that Trump’s announcement is illegitimate and would cause peace process to fail.    He also said that Russia’s position is clear and firm on East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state, stressing Russia’s support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.    MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❸  ―  (ᴀ)  PA  TO  SEEK  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  IF  US  VETOES  SECURITY  COUNCIL  RESOLUTION  ON  JERUSALEM 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Dec. 18, 2017 ―  Minister of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs Riyad al-Malki said on Monday that in the event the United States vetoes an upcoming draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council against US’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Palestinian Authority will seek action at the UN General Assembly.    MORE . . .
❹ Opinion: ISRAELI  JEWS  ‘WILL  NEVER  ACCEPT’  GIVING  VOTE  TO  PALESTINIANS  —  LIBERAL  ZIONIST  LEADER 
Mondoweiss
Philip Weiss
Dec. 17, 2017 ― Talia Sasson is the president of the liberal Zionist group the New Israel Fund (and a lawyer, former longtime government official, and candidate for the Knesset in the Meretz Party). On a podcast for the New Israel Fund four days ago she decried the idea that Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital is a blow to the peace process.
___We must continue the peace process, because the two-state solution is the only imaginable political resolution of the conflict, whenever it comes, she said; and Israelis (i.e., Israeli Jews) will never accept a single state with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza having the right to vote for the parliament.     MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❹  ―  (ᴃ)  WHY  ISRAEL’S  ARAB  LEADERSHIP  IS  DISENGAGING  FROM  THE  ZIONIST  LEFT  
+972 Magazine 
Doron Matza
Dec. 18, 2017 ― The protests against government corruption and the erosion of the rule of law, which moved recently from Petah Tikvah to the symbolic Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, provide an interesting indication of the nature of relations between Arabs and Jews and, in particular, of the process that the country’s Arab leadership is undergoing.
___What is striking in the context of the demonstration is the absence of the Arab political leadership from the new social protests (“Rothschild 2”) and the accompanying political discourse. The present reality contrasts with the protests of the summer of 2011 (“Rothschild 1″), in which Arab leaders were publicly involved in the core of the protests that took place in Tel Aviv and elsewhere around the country, as part of the movement’s spread to the country’s socio-geographic periphery.
___The 2011 summer protests focused on the high cost of living and housing, issues that highly concern Arab citizens of Israel, who face discrimination in these areas, and echoed the other protest movements in the region and around the world against the neoliberal economic order. In contrast, the scope of “Rothschild 2” is far narrower: a struggle against government corruption. Another explanation for the absence of the Arab political leadership from the protest is the increasing separation of Arab politics from the social-political arena in Israel and the changing relationship between the Arab leadership and the Zionist Left and Right.   MORE . . .

“I  AM  THE  SON  OF  THE  LAND,”  BY  FOUZI  EL  ASMAR
You may take my hands
and lock them in your chains
You may also blindfold me.

You bereaved me
from the light
and I marched
You robbed me
of the bread
and I ate.
You plundered the land
from me
and I ploughed.

I am the son of the land
and for that
I find goodness in this earth
anywhere I happen to be:
The ants of this land
feed me
The branches of this land
foster me
The eagles of this land
will shield my open revolt

Yes
You may take my hands
And lock them in your chains
You may also blindfold me
But here I will stand tall
And here I shall remain
until the very end. (April, 1970)

About Fouzi El Asmar
From: El Azmar, Fouzi.  POEMS  FROM  AN  ISRAELI  PRISON.  Intro. By Israel Shahak. New York: KNOW Books, 1973.     Available from AbeBooks.com